Is character restoral (after deletion) fairly successful?

[Kitha]

A friend deleted his character out of frustration a week or two ago and realized it was a mistake. After calling up SE and going through the restoral process, the support rep kept stressing that there's a chance that it wouldn't succeed and now he's kinda freaking out that he'll be that 1 in a million statistic.

Anyone able to speak from first hand experience w/ getting their character restored w/o any hiccups?

[Despain]

IIRC, can be restored if it hasn't been more than 3 months. After 3 months, nothing you can do.

[shihei]

Mine was restored and it was older then 3 months, although just barely, took almost a week.
All my stuff was there too.
Thought they changed that 3 month clause after I got Shihei restored too.
Anyway if he did it once, he will probably do it again and maybe him thinking it was a mistake is the mistake.

[JigglyJam]

I had no trouble at all. Called them up maybe after two to three weeks after my character was deleted and just told them all the information they needed. If you want to change your name (I did), make a mule with your previous character's name and it'll have you make a new name for the restored character.

[ringthree]

The problem is not with time, it is with the deletion restoration. There can apparently be errors that corrupt the character permanently. Happened to someone I knew a long time ago.

[orson]

There's no time limit on restorations but there is no guarantees as to whether it'll work. The 3 mths is if you leave your character unpaid for it'll get deleted when they do the server clean up.

[gandorf]

A long time ago I deleted my character. A month later I wanted to come back so I called them and they restored it. When I came back I was in the same spot even had food and refresh drink still on me.

Just tell your friend stop being a pussy and restore it.

[Wintermute]

There's no time limit on restorations but there is no guarantees as to whether it'll work. The 3 mths is if you leave your character unpaid for it'll get deleted when they do the server clean up.

My POL Acct was inactive for 6 Months and all my Content IDs cancelled and all my toons were exactly how I left them when I reactivated in March.

Unless you're referring to active Content IDs and no payments going through, though I thought they'd just suspend the account 'til payments are made in those cases.

Think it's all about luck really.

[Izzy]

I've reactivated POLID that were inactive for over a year. I don't think they actually go and delete characters on inactive ID.

[Shafted!]

What is it exactly they need for a char restoration? I'm tired of my char name and want to change but but i lack the CD keys which is my main concern.

[Titanss]

My 1st character on bahamut could not be restored. Was longer than 3 months tho. I tried it twice.

[jmc]

I've reactivated POLID that were inactive for over a year. I don't think they actually go and delete characters on inactive ID.

I think the user was saying, that if you DELETE the character before the PoL account becomes inactive, then SE deletes it from its "memory" I guess would be the term.

[barber2006]

It totally depends on the customer service agent you get. I've deleted and restored 3 times (I'm gone for good this time.......I mean it!), and each time it took me more than one call.

A couple of times they asked for cd keys, which I didn't have. I just thanked them for their time, and called back getting a different person. All they wanted was CC info.

Another time they told me they couldn't and I discovered they had misspelled my character's name. They basically said they wouldn't try again so I just called back later and no problem.

The second time I deleted I was gone for about 6 months and it was the least problematic in recovering.

It really helps to have as much information as you can about your characters levels, etc. It's how they search for them. For example, there are a billion 75 ninjas out there, but not too many that have 100 fishing and woodworking like I did. To narrow the search I told them more, like that I have a level 7 Sam. It also helps to know the zone you last logged off in.


Just keep trying. Phone works way better than email from the people I've talked to. If someone won't help you, be nice so they don't make any comments on your file and just get another CSA. Eventually you will get one that is a slacker and will only ask for your address and credit card.

[barber2006]

Oh, and be sure he leaves the content ID his character was on open. If he makes a mule just to chat they won't be able to add his old character. It must be the exact content ID that it was on.